Sabres' struggles continue with ugly loss to Blue Jackets


It's only six games into the season but head coach Lindy Ruff has been unable to be Mr. Fix It for what ills the Buffalo Sabres.

And as for his players? Talk is cheap. We've seen this act before.

The Blue and Gold are 1-4-1 on the young season after Thursday's 6-4 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets in Nationwide Arena, and the first period has to rate as their most galling effort of Ruff's second run.

The Sabres were complete no-shows for long stretches of the opening 20 minutes in this one. Forget about the shots on goal. They didn't get a single shot attempt for the first 10 minutes. The final on-goal count for the frame was 9-4 for Columbus.

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The Sabres' Bowen Byram, left, controls the puck as the Blue Jackets' Justin Danforth defends during the second period of Thursday's game in Columbus, Ohio.
Jay LaPrete, Associated Press

Yegor Chinakhov burned Devon Levi with a power-play goal at 5:12 of the period and the Sabres looked like they might survive to be down by only a goal. But Mattias Samuelsson gift-wrapped a weak cross-ice pass in the final minute and Kirill Marchenko beat Levi with another unscreened shot to make it 2-0 with 32 seconds left in the period.

"It's just winning those battles. It's focusing on tiny little details, not being careless," said winger Alex Tuch. "It's working hard for your full shift, not for 35 of the 45 seconds. It's making sure you bear down in certain areas."

The Sabres scored three times in the second period - including Jiri Kulich's first goal in the NHL - to get within 4-3, but Zach Aston-Reese's tip-in 15 seconds into the third put them on their heels the rest of the night.

Essentially, Buffalo played one good period in this game. Fool's gold. And a recipe for defeat.

"They came out hungrier than us, simple as that," said captain Rasmus Dahlin. "We've got to win our battles. We've got to play a little bit more desperate."

"They were quicker, they were stronger on pucks," Ruff said of the Blue Jackets (2-2). "It's a will. The 50-50 (battle) is a will to hang on to it in the (offensive) zone. I think when we got going in the second period, we saw what that looked like. But starting a game like that, there was no excuse."

A schedule-friendly road trip against three non-playoff teams from last season had one wondering if the Sabres might be able to salvage, say, five of the six available points.

But in the wake of Wednesday's overtime loss in Pittsburgh and with only Saturday's game in Chicago left on this run, the best they can do is three. Not good enough.
"They brought in a lot of vets and it's going to be a really good challenge for us," Tuch said of the Blackhawks. "To be able to come away off a three-game road trip with three out of six points isn't great but it's not the worst thing in the world. So that's what our goal is right now. That's it."

The Sabres' 1-4-1 start is their worst record through six games since posting the same record in 2017, their first season under Phil Housley.

Ryan McLeod, Owen Power and JJ Peterka joined Kulich with goals. But Tuch and Jordan Greenway had no shots on goal in the game and Tage Thompson also had none in the first 57½ minutes before finishing with two.

If you're looking for glass-is-half-full items, there's one that clearly stands out: The Sabres have scored 13 goals at 5-on-5 the last three games. Of course, having a power play that's last in the NHL at 0 for 17 pretty much cancels out what should be a very positive number.

Some other takeaways from the loss:

1. Offensive on defense​

What's going on with the Buffalo blue line? Dahlin hasn't scored and has just two assists in six games. His passing is off and his puck handling has been sloppy.

Samuelsson looks like he needs time in the press box, and the pass to no one in the final minute of the first period is a flat-out losing play on a losing team.

"It surprises you," Ruff said. "Plays that we didn't make for a couple of games and all of a sudden we've made some ill-advised plays that creates momentum for the other team. We're not playing a good period and the end of the first period we hand over the goal we handed over. ... It's a play we should have exited out of the zone easily."

"We've just got to keep grinding. We can't force stuff," Dahlin said. "I can't force stuff. We had 20 minutes to score one goal and we've got to stay with it."

2. Tough night in the net​

The Sabres have given up 24 goals in their six games. Neither Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen nor Levi were sharp the last two nights after putting together four pretty solid efforts in the net to start the season.

Levi had a strong game in Saturday's win over Florida but couldn't match it in this one. He was beaten clean on a couple of shots and showed poor rebound control on Adam Fantilli's second-period goal when he couldn't control Zach Werenski's floater from the point.

How tough a night did Levi have? According to Natural Stat Trick, the Sabres had 56.6% of the shot attempts, had 25 of the game's 40 scoring chances and had a 13-7 advantage in high-danger chances. When an opponent's expected goals for a game is 2.07 on the analytics ledger, you can't give up six on the ice.

3. Kulich gets No. 1​

Kulich was a healthy scratch Wednesday but got back in the lineup Thursday for Jack Quinn and gave the Sabres his first NHL goal on a midair tip of a Dylan Cozens shot at 17:29 of the second period. It was the first point of the season for the struggling Cozens.

"It feels nice to score your first NHL goal. Everybody dreams of that," said Kulich, who got the puck from Zach Benson and said it will be kept in his room back home in Czechia. "For me, it's a dream come true but it was a tough loss."

Of course, the Sabres gave the goal right back 29 seconds later when Matthew Olivier walked around Beck Malenstyn – who was back covering for Connor Clifton – and beat Levi under the crossbar to make it 4-2.

Kulich continues to get to the net and is one of the few players making any inroads on the power play.
 
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